DISASTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING p.

8-16, 1(1), 2015

Flood Causes, Consequences and Protection

Measures in Pakistan
Muhammad Yaqub1, Beytullah Eren2, Emrah Doan1

Received: 16.04.2015 Accepted: 05.05.2015

1
Sakarya University, Civil Engineering, Sakarya, Turkey
2
Sakarya University, Environmental Engineering, Sakarya, Turkey

Abstract: Flooding is the most overwhelming natural hazard in Pakistan due to diverse ecosystems and occurs mainly due to
the heavy monsoon rains throughout the country, commonly late in the summer season and overflow the rivers and streams over
dry land. In Pakistan floods are common problem and their continuity makes them more alarming for its economic growth.
Although the impacts of flood vary from one place to another and in the consequences, there are significant losses such as human
life loss their shelter, livelihood, damage to the public and private infrastructure such as roads and bridges. The aim of this work
is to present a brief analysis of flooding behavior of the Indus basin, flood causes, their dreadful impacts and the flood
administration at national level. This study also examines the aftermaths of severe floods in 67 years (1947-2014) history of the
Pakistan by comprehensive and systematic review of suitable; Recommendations have been made thorough detailed analysis of
flooding, to minimize the terrible impacts and to avoid floods continuity in the coming years.

Index Terms Analysis, infrastructure, impacts, literature, Pakistan

I. INTRODUCTION1

P AKISTAN shares its borders with India in the southeast,

Afghanistan in the northwest ,Iran in the west and the
north is China and it lies between Longitudes of 620E
and 750E and Latitudes of 240N and 370N, having 796,095
km total land area. Pakistan is geographically divided into
three zones as, Indus river plains, northern highlands and the
Baluchistan plateau. The diversity of natural and physical
environment is a challenge and threat to a variety of natural
disasters like Floods, Earthquakes and Landslides etc. The
natural disasters including floods, earthquakes, landslides
and human induces disasters such as road accidents,
Industrial accidents, fire, terrorism, internally displaced
people [1] and war also affect the livelihood of people.
In Pakistan there are more than 60 small and large rivers
but Indus River is the largest having its origin in the hills of
Fig: 1 Map of Pakistan showing geopolitical and hydrological features [2].
Kailas Mountains and flows from north to south through the
whole length of the country (3200KM) and 207 billion cubic
meters water flow per annum. The other major tributaries of It can be judged by the World Disaster Report 2003
Indus River are Jhelum River, Chenab River, Ravi River, Geneva, stated that 6037 people lost their lives and 8,989,631
Sutlej River and Kabul River etc. as major ones are shown in were affected in the era of 1993 to 2002. Flood is an
the map given below. It collects water from all other rivers overflow of water on the dry land adjacent to a river or lake
and finally unloads into the Arabian Sea near Karachi, a that is not covered by water normally and causes to material
highly populated city of Pakistan located in the province of loss, human health affect or cause to fatality.
Sindh. Worldwide statistics shows that floods are widespread
natural hazardous risk to lives as well as their properties in
the recent decades [3].

8
 DISASTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING p. 8-16, 1(1), 2015

According to global disaster analysis studies in the last ten

years, after earthquake and tsunami the floods are third most
frequent occurring natural disaster, cause of 5202 deaths, and
millions of people were affected in 2011 as reported by the
Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters [4].
The intensity, frequency and damages by floods and other
natural disaster have been repeating and increasing in the
recent decades [5]. The study of history shows that Pakistan
is one of the most vulnerable countries to natural disasters in
the world. The numerous disasters happened such as floods,
earthquake, landslides and droughts, but floods are the most
common and cause to immense damage to human lives and
their properties [6].

Fig.2 Village under heavy flood (2010) [9]

Due to the growth of urban areas in flood plains, the

frequency and intensity of damages increases as flash floods
in natural streams occur due to heavy rains in hilly and semi
hilly areas [10]. As it is studied that flood are continuously
occurring in Pakistan due to heavy monsoon rains in the river
catchment areas and sometime flow increases when snow
melt and add a large quantity of water to the rivers. These
factors cause harsh flooding in most of the Indus basin areas
and its tributaries as Ravi, Jhelum, Sutlej and Chenab in
Pakistan. [11].
It was realized in 1947 when Pakistan came to existence,
that it is important to develop new flood forecatsing and
warning systems to avoid the continuity of floods by keeping
the long history of floods in this area but no concrete step
was taken until a devastating flood occured in 1976 and then
Flood Forecasting System (FFS) was established. The study
done by [12] showed that after severe floods in 1990,
explored the weaknesses in the existing flood warning and
monitoring systems. It encompasses the improvements that
can make in the systems and other requirements for further
concrete efforts to make them more efficient.

Fig.1 Map of Pakistans River system [7]

In history it has been observed that there are up and down

in following civilizations, which grow rapidly along the
banks of Indus River and are known as Indus valley
civilizations, having history dates back to 3300BC. Indus
River and its tributaries provided a perfect situation for
establishment of people and growth of arts, culture and
politics. It is a useful water resource for irrigation of
agriculture lands to fertile the plains and plays a vital role in
the economy of Pakistan. The geography of Pakistan differs
from Northern alpine together through glaciers and Southern
plains alongside Arabian Sea as shown in figure 1.
The river system of Pakistan consists of five major rivers
named as Indus basin with its streams, Ravi, Jhelum, Sutlej Fig.3 Agricultural Economy Loss in floods [13]
and Chenab are flowing through the country from north to
south and finally falls in Arabian Sea [8]. Floods either coastal, river or flash floods cause
irreversible damage to human lives , destroy properties,
failure of economy, make fertile land unsuitable for
agricultural purpose by taking fertile soil to river systems due
to erosion and also hurt our environment. The new

9
 DISASTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING p. 8-16, 1(1), 2015

techniques, measurements and assessment, help the decision The floods happened in 1990-2000, but there were two
makers to understand the flood risk and in reducing fatalities major floods of 1992 and 1998 in the months of August and
and property loss. In this study we mainly focus on March respectively. The flood in 1992 was a hazardous one
quantitative and qualitative analysis of flood causes, their which flooded the whole country excluding Baluchistan. In
deadly impacts and suggestions to minimize the losses in the decade of 2000-2009 almost every year other than 2002
future, identify the flood affected areas, impacts on people, and 2004, flood occurred with different intensities and in
agriculture, livestock, infrastructure and economy of 2005 flood happened two times in the month of February and
Pakistan. June. Flood happened two times in the 2005, in the months
of February and June. The report of Asian Development
II. TYPES, HISTORY AND CAUSES OF FLOODS IN Bank shows that during 1950-2011 Floods frequency in the
PAKISTAN history of Pakistan from 1950-2011 is shown in the figure
below.
A. Types of floods in Pakistan:
Generally there are five types of floods that occur
commonly in the world such as flash floods, river floods,
urban floods, coastal floods and pluvial floods. Pluvial
flooding happen in canals or lakes due to the heavy rain falls
in their catchment areas and water flow out to dry land and
damage the community of region.
Different types of floods occurred in the history of
Pakistan approximately every year; however floods most
commonly occurred due to heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan.
The heavy monsoon rains in the Indus basin catchment areas
cause to fill it and a large quantity of water comes from snow
melting on the glaciers in the hilly areas. In the northern areas
of Pakistan flash floods also occur due to which there is a
loss of human lives and their properties at large scale. It
mostly happened in all the districts of Pakistan flooding are
caused by breach of banks and embankments of water
streams. Urban floods occurred commonly in the main cities
of Pakistan due to the heavy monsoon rains because there is Fig.5 Frequency & flood affected areas (1950-2011) [15]
no alternative to drainage systems so water more than their
capacity causes of flooding. The coastal floods happened in Pakistan has experienced 21 major floods claiming human
those areas near coast like south eastern Sindh and Makran lives, damage to villages, loss of livestock, agricultural and
bear the coastal floods due to tropical storms. economy as Table.1 shows in detail.
1) Floods history in Pakistan:
In the history, Pakistan has faced various disastrous Table.1Major Floods and their impacts in the history of Pakistan [16]
floods due to heavy monsoon rains caused by climate change Year US$ Lives Affected Area
in this region. The extreme monsoon rains causes of flooding million Lost villages (km2)
1950 488.05 2190 10000 17920
by adding more water to the catchment areas of different 1955 378.4 679 6945 20480
rivers and finally comes to the Indus basin, as annual peak 1956 318.2 160 11609 74406
flows of Indus basin at different sites in the history of 1957 301 83 4498 16003
Pakistan are shown in the figure below. 1959 234.35 88 3902 10424
1973 5134.2 474 9719 41472
1975 683.7 126 8628 34931
1976 3485.15 425 18390 81920
1977 337.55 848 2185 4657
1978 2227.4 393 9199 30597
1981 298.85 82 2071 4191
1983 135.45 39 643 1882
1984 75.25 42 251 1093
1988 857.85 508 100 6144
1992 3010 1008 13208 38758
1994 842.8 431 1622 5568
1995 376.25 591 6852 16686
2010 10000 1985 17553 160000
2011 3730 516 38700 27581
2012 2640 571 14,159 7145
2013 1500 287 8297 4080
2014 2000 367 2235 4046
Total 37554.45 11893 190766 609984
Fig.4 Annual peak flows (1921-2010) in Indus Basin River System [14]

10
 DISASTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING p. 8-16, 1(1), 2015
2) Latest floods in Pakistan:
There are more than 20 dreadful floods in the history of
Pakistan but their intensity and frequency has been increased
in last decade as described below.
In flood 2003 province of Sindh province was dreadfully
affected due to the flood caused by above normal monsoon
rainfall. The urban flooding caused due to continuous rainfall
284.5 millimeters created destructed situation in Karachi
city, while flash flood hit the Thatta district was the most
horrible where rainfall goes up to 404 millimeters. In this
disaster at least 484 people lost their lives and a number of
4,476 villages in this region were affected.
The flooding in 2007 caused by heavy monsoon rainfall,
badly affected the areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and
coastal Baluchistan. Flooding occurred in Khyber-
Pakhtunkhwa due to snow melting on glaciers and
additionally heavy rain fall in July and August 2007.
Cyclone and torrential rains in July and August affected the
Sindh and coastal areas of Baluchistan.
In this disastrous flood nearly 130 people lost their lives
and 2,000 were displaced from their homes to shelter rooms
in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in July and in the month of August
22 people died on the other side 815 people died in flash
floods happened in the different areas of Baluchistan and
Sindh.
In 2010 massive flooding started in July 2010,
approximately whole country was affected when flooding
was caused by heavy monsoon rain more than normal and
affected the most areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.
This was the most devastating flood in the history of Pakistan
in which around one-fifth of total area of the country flooded.
In this disaster number of affected people was more than the
total of people those were affected in Indian Ocean tsunami
2004, the Kashmir earthquake in 2005 and the 2010 Haiti
earthquake.
Fig.6 Cumulative rainfall during flood season 2010 [17]
It was the second most horrible flood in terms of
destruction in the history and it caused the death of 1985
people, flooded 17,553 villages, affected more than 160,000
square kilometers area and around 21 million people suffered
this flood disaster.
11
The flood happened in the province of Sindh due to the
above normal and continuous rainfall during the months of
August and September 2011 and it affected badly the
southern districts in the Sindh. The most affected districts
were Badin, Tando Mohammad Khan, Mirpurkhas due to
recorded rainfall up to 400mm but Tharparkar (Mithi) and
Tando Allah Yar were somewhat affected. Agricultural loss
was the big one in this flood because Sindh has fertile soil
and produces large amount of crops but in that season the
whole standing crops were fully damaged in those districts.
The deaths reported in this flood were 434, around 5.3
million people were displaced and at least 1,524,773 homes
were affected.
The forecasted monsoon rainfall was 5-15% above normal
in 2012, and in the early weeks of monsoon season it
appeared that predictions were right as forecasted but in the
last week of August and at the start of September there was
a big turnaround and rain started pouring heavily. Sudden
and extreme torrential rains were happened for a short period
of one week and flooded areas of Jacobabad, Kashmore,
Shikarpur, Jafferabad and Nasirabad where three provinces
share their boundaries and caused a large destruction of life
and property. In floods 2012 at least 571 people lost their
lives and properties that ultimately hurt the economy of
Pakistan.
In 2013 river and flash floods happened due to heavy
monsoon rains and affected different parts of the country
including North West of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FATA,
Central Punjab, Baluchistan, Karachi and the Katcha areas of
Sindh. In different districts of Punjab like Sialkot, Narowal,
Sheikhupura and Jhang were affected due to the flooding of
Chenab River and its channels, Kasur and Okara districts
were flooded by Sutlej River. In the Northern area of Sindh
flood was caused by Indus River and Karachi, Hyderabad
and Gujranwala divisions were affected by urban flooding.
In Chitral there were suspected Glacial Lake Outburst
Flooding (GLOF) and land sliding in the region of Kashmir.
The people died in floods 2013, were reported 287 with
heavy damage to the economy of country.
Heavy monsoon rains in September 2014 in the catchment
areas of Indus basin like Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Jhelum,
caused flash flooding in Punjab, Gilgit Baltistan and Azad
Jammu and Kashmir. In this flash flood 367 people were
died, affected a large number of people approximately more
than 2.5 million and 129,880 houses were damaged. More
than one million acre agriculture land and 250,000 farmers
were affected too. The living sources other than farming also
affected including many industrial production and
processing units and loss of earning sources were also caused
due to disturbance of economy.
It is observed that recorded events in Asia proved that this
region is under the influence of climate change and causes of
catastrophic natural disasters because these extreme weather
conditions have increased the frequency as well as intensity
of such disastrous events and millions of people are suffering
in the region.
 DISASTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING p. 8-16, 1(1), 2015
Fig.7 Worldwide Billion Dollar Weather Disaster 2014 [18]
B. Causes of Flooding in Pakistan
1) Natural Causes of floods
The main natural reason of floods is heavy rainfall that
causes to raises the water level in the reservoirs and when
this level goes up than the river bank or dam capacity, the
water overflows out from banks and cause of flooding. The
global warming is a hot issue these days as it causes to raise
the temperature of environment and is going to higher side
with each passing year. Due to this temperature change the
ice on glaciers melt rapidly and add more water to the rivers
and seas and finally cause of flooding. The coastal areas of
sea come under floods due to the high tide storms and in
result sea level is higher than coastal lowland that causes
flooding.
2) Human causes of floods
Pakistan has forests over 2.5% of its land area and
according to WWF, 2010 report Pakistan has the highest
deforestation rate in Asia. Due to this environmental
degradation Pakistan has faced extreme natural disasters in
recent years such as consecutive floods observed in 2010 and
2011, and it is projected that such natural disasters will be
more frequent in coming years.
Forests near the rivers have been cleared for settlements,
roads and farmlands, so soil binding is not strict due to which
erosion take place and more soil goes to rivers and seas
quickly. This erosion increases the river bed and decrease
holding capacity of rivers that causes flooding. Due to the
silting, riverbed shallower and water volume increases in the
river more than their holding capacity causes to overflow
from its bank. The vegetation cover is damaged due to the
deprived farming methods and caused washing of soil easily
to the river systems. Being a populated country it is
important to produce more food and income sources to fulfill
12
the basic human needs for which they grow many animals
and to meet their feed requirements, the meadow is eaten
away quickly and decreases the vegetation cover, and it
reduces the binding of soil particles and erosion take place
easily in such regions. As the living requirements of people
increases, they need more, like wood, land and food that is a
big cause of deforestation due to which soil erosion happen
more frequently and it maximize the risk of flooding.
The nonstop use of land for agriculture crops cultivation
purpose for a long era due to which the soil fertility decreases
in contrast to the past and soil goes to the river systems;
decrease their holding capacity and cause of flooding.
Flooding is also caused by the breaches of dams and streams
embankments because improper design and low quality
material are used in construction phase and can easily
collapse to flood the surrounded region.
The rapid and unplanned urbanization and
industrialization causes to increase imperviousness of land
and climate change respectively. The infiltrate of rains
decreases due to the imperviousness of land and increases the
runoff, the climate change, causes heavy rains and melting
of glaciers due to these factors the water quantity load
increases to the rivers and finally it causes flooding.
Immature politics is also another important human factor
causes reoccurrence of floods which badly hurt the economy
of a country. With respect to this topic there is a big dispute
at Kalabagh Dam construction and politicians have no
interest at this national issue to minimize the flood impacts
as well as to overcome the energy crises in the country but
their approach is just to keep their vote bank by holding a
territory. It is a common opinion that in the best interest of
Pakistan the construction of Kalabagh dam should have been
complete 20 years ago but opponents has made it political
issue with hidden motives.
There is a clear picture of some political statement in favor
and opposition of Kalabagh dam like in 2004 General
Pervaiz Musharraf announced that he would build the
Kalabagh dam on priority basis in attention of Pakistan but
in 2008 Raja Pervez Ashraf said that Kalabagh Dam would
not be constructed" because this project was opposed by
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and some other stakeholder and
finally construction of this dam was cancelled. But due to the
catastrophic flood in 2010 the Prime Minister of Pakistan,
Yousaf Raza Gilani said that the heavy damage in this flood
can be minimized if the Kalabagh Dam were built. So we
have to come out from such conflicts as soon as possible to
avoid such dreadful floods in the future.
III. GENERAL FLOOD MANAGEMENT AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
By taking the important factors into consideration it clears,
that floods are continuously occurring in Pakistan and deadly
hurting its economy. The economy loss caused by disasters
requires large amount of funds in the relief and rehabilitation
process after disaster and rate of return in these disaster
mitigation projects is higher than any other development
project. The post disaster development projects must be
incorporated with disaster evaluation and their vulnerability
 DISASTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING p. 8-16, 1(1), 2015

reduction, are important components to assure the
sustainability of such development projects.
There are two routes to mitigate the floods known as
structural and non-structural, in structural mitigation route
we try by keeping water away from people i.e modifying
the floods, while in non-structural route we try to keep the
people away from water i.e modifying the losses due to
floods. Therefore, a model shift has now taken place from
reactive to proactive i.e. preventive actions are better than
corrective actions. Hence to avoid the flooding, steps were
taken by the Government of Pakistan those can be briefly
stated as:
After earthquake in 2005 Government of Pakistan
established an authority for disaster management named as
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). This
authority fails to perform effectively and efficiently due to
lack of expertise and technical knowledge regarding flood
control. There is a vital need of hour to increase the
capability of this authority by hiring expert and technically
sound manpower along with the use of newer technologies.
hazards cannot be fully controlled but their vulnerability can
be reduced by proper planning and measures.
There is a need of hour to take concert and continuous
steps to reduce the vulnerability of the public to flood
disasters. After dreadful flood in 2010 NDMA is subdivided
into small units at provincial and district level named as
Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA),
District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) to make it
more efficient to control the disasters specially floods. The
investment in Disaster Risk Reduction in Pakistan for flood
forecasting after devastating flood in 2010, improved the
forecasting and warning system and it helped a lot in flood
2014 as shown in below chart. The forecasted and actual
discharges are nearly same at different sites as shown below
in the figure so by using latest technology and models we can
avoid the flood as well as minimize their dreadful impacts.

Fig. 10 Flood forecasting and comparison [21]

Fig.8 Pakistani army helicopter hovers to rescue trapped people from a It is a good sign that all the concerned authorities are now
flooded area on the outskirts of Islamabad [19], taking keen steps towards flood control and management but
these efforts must be continue to upgrade the existing
In the history of Pakistan disaster management is mostly
systems as well to install new ones to avoid flood damages
done by army, they can manage war and law and order well;
in the future. Other flood management organizations
they can be helpful in rescue, relief and recovery works. This
working in Pakistan include Department of Health (DoH),
misuse of army in disaster management working is a way to
Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS), World Health
kept themselves away from their basic objectives and also
Organization (WHO) and United Nations Office for the
put them under extra burden. The NDMA think that their
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
responsibility is just to regulate the disasters and this concept
The rehabilitation is an important step after flooding to
is totally wrong, because any National disaster management
settle the affected people in such a way to avoid flood
authority is responsible to regulate, coordinate, train the
damages in the coming years. Those people who have lost
manpower and develop the systems with latest technologies
their belongings, livestock and crops, due to damage of
to avoid the disasters.
school buildings and other infrastructures their children are
The disaster management is a multidimensional field and
unable to continue their education. There is a need of hour to
it requires sound scientific knowledge to do the job properly.
construct homes on urgent basis by using resilience materials
Although army played an efficient and excellent role in all
away from high flood plain zones alongside the steps must
the nationwide disasters but on the other hand it shows flaws
be taken to avoid the diseases that may spread after floods.
in NDMA, which has the responsibility to provide
technological support and coordination with other
administration agencies to control and avoid flood disasters.
NDMA fails to develop such a system by which this
authority can handle the disasters at national level. The
training of officials to deal with emergencies is an important
factor to minimize the disaster losses. As floods are most
frequently occurring disasters in Pakistan, it is more than
important to do something extraordinary on urgent basis to
avoid reoccurrence and to minimize its impacts. Natural

13
 DISASTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING p. 8-16, 1(1), 2015
Fig.11 Bridge collapsed during flood 2010 [22]
It has become very important to construct houses with low
cost alternative approach to fulfill the shelter requirements
and household items for flood affected people. To come out
from flood crises it is important to provide the above said
requirements on priority basis to revive their lives
straightaway after the water move away with minimum
displacement, least live lost and livestock.
The floods heavily damage the infrastructure as in flood
2010 an estimation has been made that floods damaged the
2,433 miles (3,916 km) of highway and 3,508 miles
(5,646 km) of railway track and it required 289 million USD
for their repair and maintenance work. It is important
responsibility of disaster management authorities to prepare
a plan in advance for appropriate arrangements to minimize
the flood impacts. Most commonly identified flood
preparedness activities are as follows,
To raise the community awareness on floods
attentiveness, preparation, planning, scheduling, response
and improvement measures.
The basic need materials like food, fodder for livestock,
emergency medicines, materials for temporary shelter etc.
must be in stock for emergency relief work.
For advance and effective flood warning system we
should install newer systems to forecast and communicate
with people.
The management authorities are responsible to arrange
the safe areas for temporary shelter in case of flood
emergency and also to communicate with the community
about those areas, to evacuate from the threatened places.
In future flood proofing, especially in medium and high
flood plain zones the construction of buildings must be as per
standard measures, use resilient fixtures and minimum
freeboard above ground or predicted flood level to resist the
flood impact to minimize the losses. It is relatively
economical at design and construction stage by applying the
precautionary principle and provision of freeboard and flood
resistance and resilience in buildings. In development
planning we should also keep management of surface run-on
as part of the development drainage strategy and also
improvements of watercourses, drains and sewerage
networks to reduce the flood risks.
In flood preparedness there should be a clear agreement
between all stakeholders such as government authorities,
disaster management organizations, voluntary groups as well
14
as community members, on their roles and responsibilities.
It is only possible by arranging meetings between all the
teams at various levels to agree on set of standard operating
procedures (SOPs) by defining what actions should be taken
before, during and after floods.
There must be an effective coordination among disaster
management authorities to ensure efficient and quick
response during flooding and also urgent restoration of
critical infrastructures to make things normal after floods. It
is strongly recommended that Government of Pakistan
should construct new dams as well as complete the ongoing
projects as soon as possible.
Fig.12 Indus River with major Barrages and Kala Bagh dam site encircled
[23]
They must make a solid decision by taking all the political
parties in confidence on Kalabagh Dam construction issue on
priorities basis. Now a days Pakistan is also suffering energy
crises so it becomes more important to construct Kalabagh
dam that can generate 3600 MW electricity.
The construction of this dam and other new dams will
augment irrigation supplies, hydropower and alleviate floods
and indirect benefits like more industrial and food
production, employment and agricultural boost will accrue.
It is more important for economic growth of Pakistan to
utilize the water available in Indus river form by constructing
new dams and also by increasing the capacity of existing
dams and barrages. It would be beneficial in two ways, as for
irrigation purpose in the production of crops as well as to
minimize the flood hazards happening almost every year and
being an agriculture based country these steps are the only
option to survive the economy of Pakistan.
V. CONCLUSIONS
It is advised to focus on technical knowledge and practical
expertise of the flood management authorities to avoid and
also to minimize the dreadful impacts of flood by providing
alternative solution to the current issues. This will reduce the
money spent on governments and foreign experts and spend
it in protecting vulnerable regions which were found
abundant. Pakistan require the latest technologies in weather
 DISASTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING p. 8-16, 1(1), 2015
forecasting, satellite imaging, Remote Sensing (RS),
Geographical Information System (GIS) and should use the
Markov Decision-making process, a mathematical structure
for modeling decision-making processes and that is an
alternative approach to measure point of departure by using
historical data, current data and on the basis of data calculate
short-term expectations. The flood damages assessment and
their extent during the events and used as the main input to
assess the damages with the help of GIS analysis tools. The
information derived was very essential and valuable for
immediate response and rehabilitation. [24].
Pakistan is an agriculture based country so water is a basic
need to grow crops and its important to store the water in
dams and barrages in rainy season and used to produce
electricity, irrigation purposes as well as it will also minimize
the frequency and intensity of floods that are continuously
happening almost every year in the country. Construction of
new dams is the need of hour so keeping all political conflicts
aside the Government should have to unite the all concerned
parties on this issue.
Pakistan is 6th populated country in the world and it is a
driver to land pressure which most consequently results in
the environmental disasters and also encroachment on the
fragile ecosystems. Therefore, population control should be
taken seriously and controlled as a critical intervention if the
proposed restoration activities have to make successful in
Pakistan. The settling of people in the floodplain results in a
serious damage during the flood season. People living in
floodplains are poor and they do not have enough sources to
shift their homes to any other alternative place away from
floodplains. They came and settled here in search of
economic benefits as their source of income depends upon
the agriculture and fishing in the river. It is responsibility of
the government to provide them alternative places to resettle
and also give them maps of floodplains so the people can
keep themselves away from those areas by taking legal
measures or alertness program. [25].
The plants and vegetation helps to bind the soil structure
as well as to minimize the impact of flood by taking water
for their growth and retaining the rain water for a while to
avoid the sudden flow of water from river basin catchment
areas. Forests are a key source of biodiversity, and
controlling the negative impacts of climate change helps
protect their livelihood and reduce flood damage [26].
The rapid and unplanned urbanization causes to increase
imperviousness of land due to construction of buildings,
roads and other infrastructures. So the imperviousness of soil
increases as compare to the natural groundcover so the runoff
increases because rain infiltrates quantity decreases and
finally it causes to add more quantity of water to rivers and
other streams. In the extremely urbanized areas
approximately more than one half of rain directly goes as
surface runoff so this increment in runoff needs additional
infrastructures to reduce the flooding. It came to
observations that the frequency and intensity of flooding,
waterway erosion, and devastation of aquatic habitat
normally caused due to the unplanned urbanization. The
industrialization is another big cause in climate change that
disturbs the water cycle due to which large numbers of
disasters are happening in recent years.
15
The unplanned urbanization and industrialization is a big
concern and it is the responsibility of related authorities to
plan, monitor and control the urbanization as per standards
to minimize the impacts of flooding for economic growth of
the country.
REFERENCES
[1] World Disaster Report by the International Federation of Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies, ISBN 92-9139-092-5.
[2] Muhammad Atiq Ur Rehman Tariq, Nick van de Giesen Floods and
flood management in Pakistan Physics and Chemistry of the Earth
4748 (2012) 1120
[3] S. N. Jonkman Methods for the estimation of loss of life due to floods:
a literature review and a proposal for a new method Nat Hazards
(2008) 46:353389.
[4] Report of Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters
http://www.cred.be/sites/default/files/ADSR_2012.pdf.
[5] Bernhofer, C., J. Franke, V. Goldberg, J. Seegert and W. Kuchler,
2006 Regional climate change: To be included in future flood risk
analysis Earth Environ. Sci., 67(2): 91-100.
[6] Atta-ur-Rahman and A.N. Khan, 2011a. Analysis of flood causes and
associated socio-economic damages in the Hindukush region Nat.
Hazards., 59(3): 1239-1260.
[7] Figure: 1 source http://pakistangeographic.com/rivers.html.
[8] Hashmi, H.N., Q.T.M. Siddiqui, A.R. Ghumman, M.A. Kamal and
H.R. Mughal, 2012a. A critical analysis of 2010 floods in Pakistan
Afr. J. Agric. Res., 7(7): 1054-1067.
[9] Figure: 2 source http://geographyheroes.com.tr/2010/09/Pakistan-
flood-crisis-html.
[10] Hashmi, H.N., Q.T.M. Siddiqui, M.A. Kamal, H.R. Mughal and A.R.
Ghumman, 2012b. Assessment of inundation extent for flash flood
management Afr. J. Agric. Res., 7(8): 1346-1357.
[11] Report by Government of Pakistan Ministry of Water and Power
Federal Flood Comission (FFC) Annual Flood Report 2010.
[12] Dorosh, P., S. Malik and M. Krausova, 2010. IFPRI, Rehabilitating
Agriculture and Promoting Food Security following the 2010
Pakistan Floods Insights from South Asian Experience. IFPRI
Discussion Paper, World Bank/International Food Policy Research
Institute, Washington, DC, pp: 26.
[13] Figure: 3 source http://zaraimedia.com/2014/09/25/floods-inflict-rs-
240-billion-loss-on-frail-agriculture-economy/.
[14] Figure: 4 source Tariq and Van de Giesen, 2011
[15] Figure: 5 source Federal Flood Commission and National Disaster
Management Authority.
[16] Table: 1 sources http://www.ndma.gov.pk, www.emdat.be.
[17] Figure: 6 Hashim Nisar Hashmi, Qazi Tallat Mahmood Siddiqui,
Abdul Razzaq Ghumman, Mumtaz Ahmed Kamal and Habib ur
Rehman Mughal A critical analysis of 2010 floods in Pakistan
African Journal of Agricultural Research Vol. 7(7), pp. 1054-1067,
19 February, 2012.
[18] Figure: 7 source Weather Underground Billion Dollar Weather
Disasters 2014.
[19] Figure: 8 source Report of WHO Flood Emergency Pakistan.
[20] Figure: 10 source Flood Forecasting Division of Pakistan
Meteorological Department
[21] Figure:11 source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Pakistan_floods
[22] Figure: 12 source
http://www.idrc.ca/EN/Programs/Agriculture_and_the_Environment/
Climate_Change_and_Water/Pages/ArticleDetails.aspx?PublicationI
D=1078.
[23] Mateeul Haq., 2012. Techniques of Remote Sensing and GIS for flood
monitoring and damage assessment: A case study of Sindh province,
Pakistan, The Egyptian Journal of Remote Sensing and Space Sciences
(2012) 15, 135141.
[24] Zubair Ahmed., 2013. Disaster risks and disaster management policies
and practices in Pakistan: A critical analysis of Disaster Management
Act 2010 of Pakistan, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
4(2013)1520.
[25] Khalid Ahmed., 2014. The linkages between deforestation, energy and
growth for environmental degradation in Pakistan, Ecological
Indicators 49 (2015) 9510.
 DISASTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING p. 8-16, 1(1), 2015

First Author: Muhammad Yaqub is a student at Sakarya University in

Environmental engineering department as a masters degree student; He was
born on 10March 1983 in Toba Tek Singh, Punjab, Pakistan. He studied
chemical engineering at the Institute of Chemical Engineering and
Technology University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. He joined Sakarya
University since 2013.

Second Author: Dr. Beytullah EREN is an Assistant Professor in the

Department of Environmental Engineering at Sakarya University where he
has been a faculty member since 2005. He received a B.S. degree in
Environmental Engineering at 2004 and Industrial Engineering at 2005. He
has graduate with PhD from the University of Sakarya at 2012. His research
interest are wastewater engineering, mathematical and computer modeling
of environmental system, artificial neural network modeling. He has
published many works in different fields of environmental engineering.

Third Author: Dr. Emrah Dogan is an Associate Professor in the

Department of Civil Engineering at Sakarya University. He received a B.S.
degree in Civil Engineering at 2001.He has graduate with PhD from the
University of Sakarya at 2008. He has published many works in different
fields of civil engineering.

16